If you didn’t already know by now, Chris Peach is the guy who started Money Peach from his kitchen table in March 2015. He started Money Peach alongside his “real” job, because isn’t that how most small businesses start off? They usually are created alongside a “real” job.

Believe it or not, Peach’s real job is on a firetruck at one of the busiest fire houses in the city he serves. If you weren’t already aware, Chris is a full-time firefighter and paramedic. He is also a full-time blogger and online entrepreneur for Money Peach!

He is a problem solver, no matter if your house is on fire, you’re having a heart attack, or you’re needing advice on what debt to pay off first. 🙂

Working More than One Job?

If you are one of the many people like Chris and myself who supplement your income by having more than one job, this post is going to provide you with some key takeaways for making sure you are filing your taxes correctly.

Working more than one job is tough. No, actually it is RIDICULOUSLY HARD. It requires a ton of sacrifice and self-motivation to tell yourself to keep going, even when you are dead tired. The icing on the cake is when you’re drinking your 4th cup of coffee to keep yourself going and you scroll through your Facebook feed and see those around you are taking time off to relax. Not cool!

However, before you go out and earn a bunch of income from your multiple jobs, you should first realize there are some special tips you must follow for filing taxes with multiple jobs.

Here are 3 things you need to consider if you have multiple jobs. Even if you’ve already done your taxes for this year, these may come in handy come tax time next spring.

1. Multiple Tax Withhold Forms May Result in Too Few Withholdings

While you may not enjoy paying taxes and taking home a smaller paycheck, you do want to be sure they have been prepared correctly and withheld from your paychecks all year. This way you don’t owe a crazy amount of money come next April.

If you have multiple jobs, a separate withholding form must be filled out for each employer. But, neither of those forms takes into account what is withheld from the other employer. Once your taxes are calculated, you might find that you owe a substantial amount in income tax for the year as a result.

How Do You Avoid Owing Too Much and File an Accurate Return?

The answer is to simply change your withholding on a new W-4 Form with your employer.

Claim all the allowances you normally would on the W-4 form for the job that pays you the most.

Claim Zero on all W-4s for other employers.

Why does this work?

Claiming more allowances results in less being withheld from your paycheck for that employer.

On the other hand, claiming zero would result in the maximum being withheld from your paycheck for that employer.

Therefore, since you are claiming zero for every employer except the place where you earn the most, you shouldn’t have a huge tax burden at the end of the year.

Bada-bing-bada-boom!

Money Peach Pro-Tip

I don’t want you to get a tax refund.

A tax refund is pretty dumb when you break it down. A lot of people will look at it as a forced savings plan, however what it really means is you’re lending your hard-earned money throughout the year to the government at 0% interest.

After you have sent them your money, you then patiently sit and wait while they pay you back sometime next Spring. No thanks government.

This is why I would much rather have the money I earned throughout the year land inside each paycheck, and then owe the government a little (not a lot) come April. At least then I know I was 100% efficient with my money.

2. Two Earners/Multiple Jobs Worksheet

The second page of the IRS Form W-4 contains a Two-Earners/Multiple Jobs Worksheet.

You may need to fill out this portion of the form if you have multiple jobs or are married and both you and your spouse work.

The intent here is to ensure enough taxes are withheld from your paycheck to prevent you from owing a large payment to the IRS once your taxes are calculated. There is an income chart at the bottom of the worksheet to help you fill out the form.

Since you can’t claim less than zero, an additional dollar amount can be withheld from each paycheck of the employer of your choice.

The goal is to be as close as possible to the amount actually withheld and the amount you actually owe in taxes at the end of the year. This will result in having to write a much smaller check to the IRS when you to file your next tax return.

3. Social Security Tax

If you have multiple jobs, you need to be cautious in order to avoid an overpayment on your social security tax.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, for tax year 2017, the social security tax income limit is $127,200. If you hit that mark with your total combined income, you won’t need to pay any more social security tax for the year.

If you have gone over the limit and the amount withheld was over $7,886.40 for employees ($15,772.80 for self-employed since you don’t have an employer to pick up the first $7,886.40), which is the maximum amount to be withheld for 2017, an adjustment must be made. This is done on line 71 of your 1040 form. Talk to your tax professional if you have any concerns about this.

The Bottom Line

With over 70,000 pages in the tax code, it is going to be impossible to get your taxes “just right”. Right when you think you have it all figured out, they add one more page to the tax code and boom, your taxes are no longer perfect!

Just remember this: The best you can do is simply the best you can do when it comes to paying Uncle Sam.

Therefore, if you’re one of those hard-working rockstars who dives in and takes on multiple jobs with multiple employers, then bookmark this article so you have the valuable information you’ll need to help you with your next tax return.

What Do You Think?

Can you think of other tips for those filing taxes with multiple jobs? If so, leave me a comment below and share this info with the people you like, love, can’t stand, or are somewhere in between via the buttons below.

Tax overpayment (or underpayment) can be a fine line. Mine is an unavoidable overpayment as I generally get the last 2 paychecks of the year without SS payments. So of course all of the taxes I paid to SS on my “side” job (Officer in the Army National Guard… which is why I put quotes since it sucks up so much time) get credited on my tax return. I know, nice situation to be but it generally leads to a refund every year and is unavoidable (pretty much impossible to convince the US Government to not force someone to pay taxes). Multiple jobs do lead to a more complicated tax form though.

I agree! It can be very difficult, if not impossible, to get things right and end up at $0 come tax time. But I always try my best because I don’t want to owe a lot of money all at once and I don’t want to get a large refund either.

I work two full-time jobs I claim 0 they take out the maximum taxes on both jobs so why is it at the end of the year I end up Owen 800 700 every year and I have extra money being taken out on my main job to help with my taxes

I’m not an accountant by any means and I don’t know all about your situation with deductions, etc. BUT, you could have them take out extra besides just claiming 0 but putting in a dollar figure you want withheld on top of the regular withholdings. It’s best to talk to an accountant before making that change though.

I work 2 part time jobs and my husband works full time..I just did my taxes and owe the IRS 1,100…Not happy..We both claim 0 and i take extra out of my lower paying job.What are we doing wrong?? They take the max out and we still have to pay that much back..Im not getting what we are doing wrong… Any help would be appreciated 😉

As I just told Dianna, I’m not an accountant. BUT, you could have them take out even more so you don’t have to pay in. Don’t forget to have extra withheld on the state side if you always have to pay in there too. It’s best to talk to an accountant before making those changes though.

Help!! I have 3 jobs. Two serving jobs in Texas and I am an online instructor for WVU. I owed the state of Texas 3700 bucks last year and I barely make over 50k. What am I doing?? I claim 0 at the job I make the most money at.

Without seeing your deductions and credits, it’s hard to know for sure. Did you ask your tax professional if you can adjust your withholding to have them take out even more per pay period? You may also want to pay quarterly taxes if you are working a job that doesn’t withhold anything.

I work two jobs one is a full-time job and one is a part time job which job should I claim 1 on the job that I make the most at or the job that I make the Least at? right now I claim 0 for both jobs and I’ve been thinking about claiming 0 for one job and claiming 1 for the other I’m single but should I claim 1 on the job that I make the most at or should I claim one at the job that I make the least at? Please help! Thank u!

So i am currently holding 2 jobs, 1 ft, 1 pt. My husband also holds 1 ft job. We have 4 dependants and we don’t exceed 50,000 a year. I am confused as to what we should be claiming? My 1 ft job makes the most money so do i claim all 4 and then 0 on my 2nd job and 0 at my husbands job? Or can I claim 0 at my pt job and 2 at my higher paying job and my husband the other 2? I am so freaking confused.. help

Hi Sharon, I would talk with a tax expert to make sure you are doing it 100% correctly. I’m not a tax professional and I wouldn’t want to give you incorrect information about your withholdings. Since you and your husband are both working, and you have a PT job, that could affect your withholding status quite a bit.

I live in the state of MN, and am considering taking on a part-time waiting gig. What are the potential tax consequences of doing so? I already claim 0 at my full-time job, and would also at the part-time gig, but what are the rules for reporting tips, and how do they fold into your income?

Nice Article for freelancers. Thanks for writing such a good article in the form of tips for freelancing jobs. I am looking to try these tips for myself usable. People always try direct method but most of time these trick don’t works. Your tips are helpful for the person to make good blog posting for their websites or blog and content freelancing writing jobs.

Great tips for filling out your taxes when you have multiple jobs. I liked how you said to claim the full amount on the job that pays you more so that when you owe taxes on the second job you’re writing a much smaller check to the IRS. Taxes are pretty complicated for me, so I’ll probably look into a service/person who can help me this upcoming April.

So I work full time as a supervisor and a part time stylist my co-worker informed me that I was supposed to file taxes on my stylist job too but I already filed my taxes is it too late for me to file for my stylist job

I’m Retired Military and work for The Water Dept for the City I live in. I claim zero deductions for both incomes. I also put 340 dollars per pay period in Deferred Comp Ohio 457b. for 2017 I put 8840.00. I worked less overtime and made about a 1000.00 less than in 2016. Yet put twice as much in to the 475b plan. I made 109k in 2017 and ended up owing 962 to IRS. So I increased the DC withholding to 445.00 per check (26 pay periods) that’s 11570.00 what else does a single person have to do to be tax compliant ? Then I was told I may be fined for not having enough withheld ? BTW the DC OH 457b automatically increases $50.00 each January 1st. What else does one have to do?

Thank you for letting me know what to do with my taxes when I have two jobs. It was useful to know, “If you have multiple jobs, a separate withholding form must be filled out for each employer.” Because taxes are crazy, I hope to find a great tax service online that is simple and easy.

I really need help in determining how I should file. I just recently got a second job because my Husband has been out of work this year. I filed Married and 2 on my W-4 for both jobs. Is that wrong? I want to file correctly, but, we also need as much as we can get.. Please help!

Yes it would – you are correct. If you are currently claiming zero and still have to pay in, I would set money aside for that payment each year. You could put it in an interest-bearing savings account so YOU are earning the interest on your money instead of the government. It may not gain you much, but it’s still money in your pocket instead of theirs.